Adventures of the SGAA Brigade

Written by LordofGibberish. From the author: “A bit of clarification. The stuff you see is, in my mind not another layer of the Dreaming. The Dreaming is implied to be separate from Reality but tangential to it. What Raz observes is something else. He more clearly sees the ambient glamour around him in the world without the distraction of reality. So subtle patterns that are normally lost become clear. People affect the glamour around themselves, and without distractions, that is visible. A certain pair of characters are dreams that weren’t powerful enough to become chimera, but are too stubborn to just fade. Or perhaps they are chimera that lost to much glamour and started to faded to shades of their former selves, but aren’t gone yet. They remain as subtle patterns on glamour. Perhaps one is an imaginary friend that was abandoned, but was too strong to fade and the other was a teenager’s dream of being a cartoonist to escape the no name town he was trapped in. I dunno, could be anything. As for Mr. D, well, you are welcome to try and tell him where he can and can’t be. Anyway, not necessarily the way it really works, but just something I thought of.”

Raz stared. At first, he thought he was seeing things. He kept staring and no one seemed to notice. That wasn’t odd really, since no one else had been able to see Raz. But still…

The top hat wearing frog stopped once he saw Raz looking at him, and motioned to his friend. The rabbit, seeing him, glared and pulled a switchblade causing his mohawk to sway. “Where the fuck did you come from?” the rabbit challenged

“Ahh, well, umm, here, sort of. I go to this school. Who are you?” Raz returned.

“Ain’t nobody that questions Mr. Cotton on his own turf! If you don’t watch yerself, you will end up cut!” the rabbit threatened, motioning with the knife.

“Calm down, my good man. He just appears lost.” The frog said, stepping in front of his friend. “It is a gentleman’s duty to help those in need. Now, good sir, may I inquire as to how you ended up in this part of the school?”

“I was working on an experiment. I don’t know how technical I should get, but it shifted my fae mein more in line with ambient glamour so it could be more directly observed. But once I turned it on, I found that while I could directly observe glamour, I found I couldn’t turn off the device. My body wouldn’t move, though I seem to be able to walk around here easily enough” Raz responded.

Mr Cotton began to laugh loudly and rudely, slapping a large foot on the floor. “You trapped yerself here?! You are a daft one, aintcha?”

“Please excuse my friend. He is lacking in some of the more basic social graces. You must understand this is rather unique though. Though we see the students that attend here, this is certainly the first time they have seen us.” The frog motioned to a pair of students that walked down the hall.

Raz recognized the pair, though they were subtlety altered in a way Raz suspected had to do with their personalities. Jeanna Sotherson walked down the hall wearing armor and bore a sword at her hip. She was a well known crusader for any cause she thought Right. Her companion, Matthew Simmons, was something of a computer geek, and he appeared as almost a cyborg. They walked, obviously in conversation, though no words could be heard.

Raz had seen this before he met the odd pair. He thought their appearance was based on their personality and self-image. He had seen Lord Darkshire, earlier, and he had looked normal (as normal as slaugh ever looked) to Raz, so perhaps regular people could create something akin to a fae mein, but it was just to subtle to normally see.

“Well, I’m here now. But, what are you doing here? I didn’t think there would be anything here.” Raz replied.

“You questioning my existence? I ought to cut you to ribbons just for that. Come into a rabbit’s home and tell him he ain’t got no right to exist! Well, this non-existent rabbit is about to drop kick your arse right out of existence.” Mr. Cotton said as he threatened with the knife.

“Mr. Cotton, control yourself! At this singular event, don’t you think we should show him to Mr. D.” The frog admonished.

“Hrmph. I suppose. Mr. D might get a bit cranky if he didn’t get to see him. Well, come on. We need to get out of here. The bell is about to ring.” With one more threatening gesture with the knife, the rabbit pushed past Raz and started hopping down the hall.

The frog hopped next to Raz, and gestured down the hall that they should follow. “Forgive my friend. He has a bit of a complex. I strongly recommend you never call him Cottontail or Peter. Not only is that not his name, but he is rather handy with that knife. I am Hopalong Froggington Atelopus Toadsworth the Eighth, but, please, call me Hops.” The frog tipped his hat at the introduction.

“I am Razputin or Raz to my friends. I didn’t mean to be rude before, but I didn’t expect such.. " Raz motioned to Mr. Cotton.

“Yes, well for the most part you are correct. Not many of us live in this place. While in some respects very resilient, we must clear this hall before the bell or else we could be brushed by one of the dark people. That would cripple, if not kill one of us. Our life is fraught with danger and most do not make it.”

“Ok, but what are-” At that moment, the bell started ringing.

Mr. Cotton began to swear. “No choice, make a dash for it.” And he bounded off down the hall.

“This way” said Mr. Hops, and moved to a pace such that Raz had to run to keep up.

People swarmed out of the halls, quickly filling the hall. While startled, Raz found he could move easily, as he could pass through people. Hops turned down a hall and made for a door that Raz felt certain wasn’t normally there, next to the maintenance room in the English hall. He was almost to the door, and he could see Hops motioning him down some stairs when he saw his first dark person.

The description was correct. The person was darkness. It was an outline of something that wasn’t there. It seemed to suck in light from everything around it in. It emerged from Mrs. Bensworth’s grammar class and, before he could react, it pushed into him. His world turned to pain, then blinked out.
______________________________

Raz woke up to cool stone pressing against his cheek, unsure where he was. Opening his eyes, he was surprised to find himself in sunlight. Looking around, he was in a stone tower of some kind with only a few pillars breaking up the view of a perfect summer sky. A cool breeze blew in and Raz found himself sitting up to revel in it.

Looking around he found Hops sitting near by.

“I was afraid we had lost you. We rushed to Mr. D, but he said we had nothing to worry about. Apparently, you aren’t too fragile. Glad to hear it though.” Hops said.

“Where are we? And where is this Mr. D?” Raz said blearily.

“Have a look for yourself” Hops responded, motioning to the windows, then hopping over himself. “Don’t get to close to the edge. Though he would never admit it, Mr. Cotton can’t stand the view and spends as little time here as possible. Not me though, this is the closest a frog will ever get to flying.”

Raz grinned and moved towards the opening. “I could fix that if you like.”

The view was breathtaking. The tower was far above the ground, which lay spread out beneath him. He didn’t recognize the land, and it was too far away to make out any details for him to even guess.

Leaning out of the tower, Raz risked a glance down to see what sort of citadel would hold such a tower. He was surprised to discover that the tower cutoff not far below him, and instead continued out of sight above.

Hops pointed at a spot in the distance “Ah, here comes Mr. D. I believe I will leave you to him. I have duties to attend to, and time waits for no amphibian.” Tipping his hat, Hops went to a staircase in the center of the room. “I have always wondered what lay beyond this. A wanderer like you makes one think. Perhaps I may visit you one day. Until then, may the water never freeze and the flies be slow and fat.” Turning, he descended the stair.

Looking back to the window, the dot in the distance had grown greatly in size and detail. At first, the features looked reptilian, but, as the creature drew closer, the similarities faded. It was itself, and incomparable to anything else. Other things were compared to it, not the other way around.

The creature wrapped itself around the tower, its massive head barely fitting into the tower.

“Mr… Dragon, I presume?” Raz asked.

A laugh shook the tower. “A good guess, but I prefer David. I have other names, but I find David the easiest, as no one blinks when you talk about David. Not the case with Zmey Gorynych”

“That’s… unexpected. Well, …David, you don’t look like the others I have met so far.”

“Yes, the others are figments. Bare strands of gossamer that are still vibrating to some dream. They are fascinating creatures, though most never see them. They have a hard time making it in your world, so I offer refuge to any who reach my door. Most don’t make it more than a few years regardless, though some like Mr. Cotton, seem too stubborn to fade. You should consider yourself lucky, most never know of their existence, and, those that do, never realize that they are fully formed creatures and think of them as merely anomalies. pause How did you find your way here?”

“I was experimenting with a way to view ambient glamour in more detail, so I came up with a device to shift my glamour more in line with the ambient and remove the interference of common reality. Unfortunately, it worked too well, and I was unable to interact with ‘common reality’ so i couldn’t turn off the device.” Raz replied.

“Hmm, did you use the Enscophic method of glamour amplification or a Palthadic system to simply alter the phase?
____________________________________

“That isn’t a bad idea. I could boost my efficiency by at least 20% that way and it would get rid of the feedback problem.” Raz said. “It’s nice to talk to someone as knowledgeable as yourself. I like my friends, but none of them care about the underpinnings of what they do as long as the Art works.”

“Well, you are welcome to come and speak to me anytime, as long as you can find another way to do it. If you keep trying this method, one day you won’t come back. You were lucky it worked this time”

“Roger. Our discussion has already given me a few ideas of what to do next. Well, I guess I ought to get back. So, how do I do that?”

“Why, click your heels together and say ‘There is no place like home’.”

“Ha-ha. How do you keep up on your pulp culture?”

“Oh, you’d be surprised. On a more serious note, I would prefer you not tell people that I live here. I like value my privacy.”

“Oh, I doubt even my friends would believe a story that started with a punk rabbit with a mohawk and ended with a dragon that lives below.., err above…, NEAR the school.”

“Do I have your word to protect me, mine and my lair to the best of your abilities?”

“Of course.” Raz said with a smile.

“Good. I will assume you are good to your word as in the past. It was good to see you, old friend.” The dragon tapped him with a talon, and the world exploded into more colors than a rainbow could hold.
____________________________________

Raz jerked upright. Memphis was sitting next to him with a permanent marker.

“Nice nap? You took my fourth favorite spot, you know” Memphis said, putting a cap on the marker.

“Hmm, I suppose.” Raz stood up and walked over to the tool box. He picked up a large mallet and hefted it. “Were your other three favorite spots taken?”

“No, but it seemed like a clubroom sort of day. What are you doing?” Memphis inquired.

“I just realized that this trinket is more dangerous than I thought. Given that you can’t keep your hand off things, I thought I’d better get rid of it before it causes trouble.” Raz responded and raised the hammer and smashed the wristwatch sized device.

Or, Rook Jumps the (Land) Shark

Game summary by Rook3769. Have an XP for your trouble! Although, I don’t remember there being that many whale dick references in the game…. O.o

The time was eleven on a Saturday morning, which was very early for Memphis. As he lay in bed, a knocking sound woke the satyr. After ignoring it for a moment, Memphis looked around the room for the sound. On the floor, he saw a small crab wearing a beret, monocle, and mustache.

Upon being questioned, the crab revealed himself to be Spymaster Clousteau , master spymaster for the Coral Archipelago. He was sent by acting-queen Skyla to give Memphis and his crew a letter of marque to act as pirates for her. Their mission was to intercept and prevent a treaty from reaching a man known as Levi Macklan, which was being delivered by the infamous and not Dick Tracy villains, the Murkwater Gang. Skyla also had a personal letter to goat-man-do slipped into the marque letter. Memphis gladly accepted his mission from his lady lust and thus began to round up his crew.

Memphis first called Raz. Then he called Rook and Sam. He also called Lord Darkshire, but he was indisposed with Anastasia and a D&D game. Memphis then went to Brytta’s house to pick her up and leave her parents with a badly amusing impression. Raz called Mindy just as Memphis, Brytta, Rook and Sam arrived at his place. Memphis explained the situation to the group, then they went to pick up a pirate-ready-matey of a Mindy.

During this time, Rook did his usual text to Bella to check if she was involved with what the SGAA was going against. The troll asked her if she was involved with pirates. She responded with a confused reply, to which Rook merely responded with the words, “arrrrrrr matey.” Little did Rook know Bella was in the middle of writing a slash fic involving Captain Jack Sparrow and the Dredd Pirate Roberts. The line she just finished was “Though he said arrr matey, what he really meant was, I love you.”

The crab mentioned the meeting was to take place at Deadman’s Ridge, which also seemed to be timed to occur when one of the infamous local street races occur. So, the group went there first to investigate. Rook stopped on the way to grab a map. The SGAA members eventually came to a rock outcropping that would make for both a good hiding place and a good ambush site.

The group climbed up the rock to scout out the area above. Raz fell slightly behind, but caught up later. After walking a bit, the group came across a large creek. The Glamour around it was off, so Memphis asked the crab to check how deep the water is. The crab went in, and a few minutes later the crab rushed back out, almost getting eaten by a huge shark thingy.

Brytta then ordered Sacen to go investigate, which he did. Soon he came back up with a dead barracuda/pirana thing. He confirmed that there be monsters in the water. Upon closer examination it was determined that the barrier between reality and the dreaming was very thin in this spot. So the group naturally stopped to make a fire, cook lunch and eat. Though Sacen got sushi for his part.

The next stop the group made is at Fat Tony’s. The group minus Rook and Sam went there. Memphis went to talk to Tony while the rest ate cannolis made by his wife, who preferred everyone calling her Momma. Rook and Sam drove around town looking for anything suspicious, but found nothing.

Memphis talked to fat Tony to exchange information. The satyr told him about Levi and the deal he is making with the Murkwater Gang, which Tony confirmed that is indeed their actual name. The news was new to Tony, which he told Memphis if he found anything out, let him know. Memphis also learned the town knows the Murkwater Gang as drug-running Columbians. After he finished his talk with Tony he left, grabbed some to-go-boxes of cannolis, then the SGAA regrouped.

The next place the group researched was at Levi’s bowling alley. They bowled a few pins while listening in, except for Mindy. She seemed to play a mixture of calvin ball and shuffleboard. They didn’t hear anything too useful, and left shortly after Levi.

The group decided to stop the transfer during the race. Rook and Sam would set up back at the rock outcropping with boxed lunch to await for any surprises during the race. Memphis, Raz, Mindy, and Brytta went to check on the racer dreamers that the satyr and nocker had cultivated, then head for the beginning of the race.

McGee and Selma were at their usual place, doing last minute checks and prep for the coming race. Raz spoke to McGee, checking the car out and giving his dreamer some minor advice. Memphis spoke to Selma, giving her some warnings about the race possibly being a little weird. Both dreamers seemed to be set, so Memphis, Brytta, Mindy and Raz left to do some prep of their own.

The plan was to use the chimerical car of awesomeness that Raz and Memphis had been working on, which was stashed in the Dreaming. Memphis called Fat Tony to have him sponsor the satyr as a racer. Though the plan was that Memphis would show up as the Stig, a legendary racer from Top Gear. Memphis would also retrieve the car from its location in the Dreaming.

To quote a famous ninja dog historian who wrote about the famous consort of Queen Skyla many years after her reign, “ The car looks like the quintessential hot rod. If you ask someone what model it is they will always think it is whatever their favorite is. Not that they each see different things, but they each see what the andy want and fail to grasp the entirety. As for its paint job, it appears matte black from a distance, but a closer inspection will reveal that it is actually closer to a star field. Black but with tiny, brilliant colored lights glowing in the depths. It has a flame pattern that runs down both sides of the car created by some of the most vibrant colors seen in the Autumn realm. The colors twist and move before your very eyes, though mortals think it nothing more than a trick of the light. That is our mighty steed. A mere look at its true majesty has been known to crush the minds of lesser men. Some whisper that after beholding her, all you can do is curse your luck as you will never be satisfied with a vehicle again, as everything falls short of the perfection that you had the honor and tragedy of seeing.”

After Memphis retrieved the car, Raz would drive it up to the race. The Nocker would call upon the Wyrd, which would disguise Raz from the crowd and make the car real. Meanwhile Memphis blackmailed assistance from Anastasia and Darkshire and was able to grab a Stig-like-suit from the Drama room at the school.

At the start line of the race, Mindy and Raz worked the crowd for info, though Mindy strangely enough had more success despite the makeup of the crowd being against her usual grain. Raz excused himself to call on the Wyrd, drove the car up to the line with Brytta in the back seat, and introduce the Stig to music from the car. Then Memphis walked slowly from the woods to the car, with slow murmurs building from the crowd.

Minutes later the Murkwater Gang/Columbians pulled beside the SGAA car. The Columbians looked like obvious evil merfolk and their car was made of quite a many of Whale Dick unfinely sculpted to look like a shark. Both Raz and Memphis noticed that Levi nodded suspiciously at the Columbians. The noticeable racers in the final line-up are Stig/Memphis, Selma, the Columbians, Levi, and long time veteran, The Meach.

With the participants in place, the race started. Memphis immediately took the lead, followed by the gaggle of whale dicks. Brytta attempted to sain the dick of whale’s tire, but the name was a quite complicated one, especially for something of whale dick nature. Plus the shock of Mindy appearing in the back seat suddenly was distracting.

Meanwhile Rook and Sam awaited on the bike at the outcropping. The noise of dirt bikes got closer. Just before the source appeared, Rook activated the Dragon’s Ire. This caused the dirt bikes to slow down as they passed the rock, turning around to look at the pair. Five dirt bikes with thallain merfolk were awaiting Rook and Sam’s reasoning. Rook bantered back, then broke a mirror to activate his Mirror images cantrip. Four copies of Rook, Sam and bike appeared. Both sides clashed soon after, with Rook killing one of the merfolk right off the bat, launching the poor sod in midair.

Back at the race, Memphis kept the lead. Brytta sained some more and got the name of the tire, but she unfortunately only made it deflate slightly. The Columbians launched a land shark at the car, though Brytta ordered Sacen to keep it at bay, which he did for the moment. Raz then created a FUBAR, then sent it after the Columbian dicks.

Meanwhile Rook and Sam battled with the dirt bikers continue. One managed to nick Rook with a glancing blow. Though both Rook and Sam missed their targets.

Memphis continued to keep the lead, trying not to get hit by the landshark. Raz then climbed on top of the car and began cursing up a storm at the whale dicks that barely resembled a car.. The combo of his words and the FUBAR in the pile of whale dicks caused the Columbians to explode spectacularly. Selma managed to catch up with Memphis during this madness. Brytta had some luck further deflating the whalecar dicktire, but the explosion made her effort null. Meanwhile, the Rook/Sam versus the others fight continued, but everyone misses their mark.

Then Brytta got on hood to sain Memphis’s car name before fubar interference. The FUBAR then attacked the satyr’s car, causing it to start missing and slow down, with the other racers passing it and the landshark still a threat. Raz began constructing a cage for the FUBAR. Then when the landshark was about to attack again, a random dirt biker drove straight into its mouth helping Sacen with the parry.

Annoyed that the fight was taking longer than expected, Rook decided to test some of his newly learned from Krahe knowledge. He activated the level 3 cantrip of Contempt on the dirt bikes to cause them to riot against his enemies. One bike drove immediately off the ridge. A second bike crashed into the rock wall. A third just fell to pieces, leaving the biker alive. The fourth drove off toward the racers, and into the landsharks mouth. Rook then told the other guy it was probably time to leave, which caused the merfolk to run in terror.

Sam and Rook then drove toward the race. As the pair arrived, they saw the rest of the SGAA lagging behind. Memphis managed to pull the FUBAR out of the engine and into Raz’s newly formed cage. Brytta had finished naming the car not only back to normal, but FASTER.

Sacen was still holding off the landshark. Rook drove by them and toward the shark to jump it. Sam struck first, then Rook right on top of her blow, killing it utterly. Afterward, Rook tried to use quicksilver on the car, but failed.

But, Memphis succeeded greatly with his Quicksilver. That, combined with Brytta’s efforts caused the race to be child’s play. They raced past everyone and finished first. Then Memphis started doing a donut to start his disappearance/portal passage cantrip, with smoke effects provided by Raz. The car soon disappeared and landed into legend. Selma was second place. Levi was third and the Meach was fourth.

Memphis, Mindy, Brytta and Raz soon came back to reality in the woods and walked out to ask what happened. They pumped up the legend even more and made sure Levi did not have the treaty. After the excitement calmed down, memphis and his crew went back to the Columbian wreckage. The crab was annoyed that the treaty was destroyed, but Mindy was able to use her Chronos art to repair the document.

With the treaty intact, the crab was pleased. Memphis gave the crab a letter for Skyla. Raz and Mindy also wrote one for Ruby. With that, the crab scuttled off, and the pirate mission was complete, albeit with the smell of burnt whale dick in the air.

Thanks to Rook3769 for another game summary! Have an XP for your trouble! Pulsedrive couldn’t make it, so we did a series of side stories instead of main game plot.

Side Story 1: Smelliot on Parade

Some time has passed since the somewhat fright of a night school gym concert. During that time, the SGAA members did some of their own activities since the club activity level seemed to ebb a bit and be set on plaid. Desmond came down with the flu and was out of school for a few days and was not part of these events….

Brytta spent her time looking more into her shadowy companion, Sacan. She looked in the library, specifically going through the fairytale section. Her search was fruitful in finding info that Sacen was Grendel’s Uncle, which only made the shadow monster a more curious blackness.

Meanwhile, Memphis had some talk time with Fat Tony, though they were pretty much square despite favors Memphis called in recently. Rook finished healing, though only spent one day at school seriously injured before being healed up. He also spent time with his dreamers to further cement the addition of Chuck Morris and Jacquie Chan. Sam’s efforts were spent on studying and tests for various colleges and universities. Mindy did…Mindy things. And Lord Darkshire was away from the club with Anastasia, like usual.

However, the night of the concert left Raz with the most questions. Who was this Elliot that tried to hit on Mindy. The mystery guy obviously caused Mindy some distress when she did not notice him or his feelings previously. So Raz did some research and turned up the standard info that Elliot was a bullied kid in the bottom rung of the school’s social ladder. Elliot also had an unusual stench, which lead to his status and being a target for bullying.

Seeing how little information he gathered, Raz asked Memphis for help. Goat-man-do managed to find out more information, including the fact that Mindy and Elliot worked on a school project once. Memphis also mentioned a shrine that was in Smelliot’s locker, for which Memphis made sure he had Raz and one teacher to use as an alibi for that discovery. Memphis relayed this information to Raz, then they decided to take the situation to the club room.

Brytta and Rook were relaxing in the club room when Memphis and Raz walked in. The satyr brought the eshu and troll up to speed. There was much discussion on how to resolve the issue, because Raz wanted to avoid Elliot going “missing” The group decided that they needed to do more reconnaissance before coming up with a plan. One group would investigate the showers, the other would break into Elliot’s home, with both having the objective of finding the source of the smell.

Brytta had gym class with Elliot, which was at the end of the day. Raz and Rook would check out the showers after that class. Memphis would break into Elliot’s home and attempt to discover the outcasts dark stinky secrets.

During the day, Raz purposely left his keys in the locker room so he’d have an excuse for later to go back to the locker. Rook checked with his dreamers to see if they knew anything about the funky student. Brytta did her own looking out for info during the day, and Memphis did Memphis things.

At the end of the last period of classes, Rook and Raz went to the locker room. On their way, they bumped into Mindy. She asked what they were doing, which Raz responded with the keys excuse. After prodding Raz to help sneak in their, Raz denied her ninja fun. The Pooka followed the pair anyway.

In the locker room, Raz and Rook saw most of the other students picking on Elliot. Rook left to get some liquid heat for an object lesson. Raz modified the showers for cold water, then asked the bullying students for help to find his keys. Elliot took his chance and ran out of the locker room, bumping into Mindy. the pair fell to the ground, with Mindy ending up on top. Elliot’s voice dropped three octaves that day Rook came back to the door and saw them. He quickly picked them up, then entered the locker room.

Raz exited quickly to check on Mindy. Seeing Elliot with the fair Pooka maiden, Raz wrapped his arm around Mindy in front of Elliot and asked if Mindy wanted to go get a milkshake. Mindy agreed, so the couple went to the local dairy dip to get some milkshakes.

Then Rook exited and checked on Elliot, After seeing how crushed he looked, Rook asked Elliot if he wanted to hang out. At first he was hesitant, but Elliot agreed after some persuasion from Rook. On the way out of the school, they met up with Brytta, and she joined the party. Rook texed Memphis as well, though the satyr was in the middle of his part of the research. The group then headed for the ice cream shop as well, not knowing Raz and Mindy would be there as well.

During the shower shenanigans, Memphis broke into Elliot’s house easy enough. Nobody was home and the scruffy delinquent had the full run of the place. During his search, Memphis found tons of personal hygiene products in the bathroom. In the bedroom, he found a shrine dedicated to Mindy, with pictures obviously taken from hidden vantage points. With this information in hand, Memphis texted the pictures to Raz.

Mindy and Raz were doing well at the ice cream place. Raz attempted to flirt, and Mindy was empathetic enough to recognize his attempts. ‘That’s Amore’ played on the jukebox and it seemed like the date would have no hitches whatsoever.

Then Rook opened the door and saw that the pair was in there. He persuaded Brytta and Elliot to wait outside while he picked up the orders. The troll passed by the inside pair, gave Raz a warning, then ordered the frozen dairy-like-snackage and went back outside. Brytta and Rook talked with Elliot, to find out more info and partly to be nice to the guy.

Memphis arrived soon after, went inside and talked to Raz privately about the shrine. Then Memphis went back outside to hang out with the other group.

During the conversation, the satyr showed Rook the picture, which the troll merely nodded that he saw it. Over the next several minutes, the group socialized with Elliot, mainly to figure him out, but also because he seemed to need it.

After spending some time with him, Rook noticed something off with the Glamour in Elliot. Brytta, Memphis and Rook all noticed that he seemed normal enough, just kind of stunted socially. Continued abuse might trigger a psychotic meltdown, but currently he seemed fixable. With the hang out time finished, the outside group parted ways, with the three SGAA members going back to Rook’s place.

Mindy and Raz finished their ice cream soon after and retired to Raz’s place. They sat down for a long relaxing night of Sharknado. Heavy petting of the dog Pooka also may have been involved. On the way to Rook’s Memphis stopped by Raz’s and played the role of condom fairy by leaving a box at an open window with a knock.

At Rook’s place, the trio met up with Sam while they continued to discuss the situation about Elliot. When informed about the odd Glamour around the poor sod, Memphis crafted a cantrip out of a napkin to cast Willowwisp. The cantrip was an extraordinary success and immediately rushed out the bar. The group gave pursuit, both in car and on bike. The trip was unusually direct, and lead to Elliot’s house. Though the wisp entered the house before anyone could see where exactly in the house it went.

Brytta sent her shadow friend, Sacan Ealdor, into the house to find the source. Though it took some persuasion since the two seemed to have issues earlier in the day involving his identity. A few minutes later a quad of chimerical stink spiders ran out of the house being pursued by the monster. Memphis ensnared them to the sidewalk. Brytta ordered Sacen to stop. then Rook lifted the concrete slab of the sidewalk with the spiders and put them in a trashcan, which soon went into to Memphis’s trunk. Memphis tried calling Raz, but got no answer. So the group naturally decided to make a trip to Raz’s place.

The group arrived at Raz’s garage with trashcan in tow. Memphis went to retrieve the knocker, which caused Raz great annoyance. But after some explanation, both Raz and Mindy ecam to the garage. After some talk about what the spiders were, Flutterfeet told the group they were nightmare chimera that probably spawned from the kid and have been causing him the smell for years. With that Raz asked for someone to just put it in the corner so he can deal with it later. Rook stabbed his sword through the trash can and then obliged. Then Raz and Mindy went back to their “movie time” Everyone one else departed..

The next day Elliot seemed to be smelling better. Though he was still the bottom of the social ladder. Rook still planned on helping him further.

Side Story 2: This Art is on Fire

With the previous situation of Elliot dealt with for the time being, the SGAA relaxed in the club room. A knock on the door woke the SGAA from the moment. Rook answered the door, and a familiar doll face looked in on the group. It was Sumitra, Penny’s doll.

She walked in politely and gave the SGAA an invite to St. Brigit’s art show. The group gladly accepted. With the club’s confirmation, Sumitra said her goodbyes and left. Memphis followed her until she grew wings and flew off.

Upon being filled in about the Changeling group at Saint Brigit’s, Brytta asked what an Oath Circle was. Memphis and Flutterfeet both gave various answers, though the concept was one that was hard to pin down.

The group then discussed who was going to the show. Brytta, Memphis, Mindy, Raz, Rook, and Sam all decided it could be a fun diversion. Lord Darkshire was busy planning his next D&D game with Anastasia. The group went to get a school van for the event, though John Smith seemed to have one ready according to a school office worker. This annoyed the satyr.

The group made good time driving to the rival school. After their arrival, the SGAA was greeted by Penny and Pug. They exchanged pleasantries, introduced Brytta to the pair, and briefly caught up. Then Penny explained the situation to the new arrivals. The art show was not producing the usual amount of Glamour. Josiah was busy searching the perimeter for clues. Also, Penny mentioned that Hakim was not aware of the invite, which pleased Memphis and Raz. Rook texted Bella to see if she was near St. Brigit just in case, which only garnered a confused response from Bella.

At the entrance into the school, Memphis kicked the door open. Then the SGAA did a slow motion celebrity intro-walk into school. Many eyes stared as the group walked in to a tune played on Memphis’s guitar. Hakim looked annoyed as he saw the new arrivals.

At the sight of her, Madison hit on Brytta immediately. At first her interest was slightly curious, but his bad French immediately sent her to headache territory. Hakim walked up to talk to the rest of the group. Memphis and Raz did most of the talking, with Raz doing a beautiful over dramatic diatribe about how the invite must have gotten lost in the mail. After giving a reluctant welcome, Hakim quickly went elsewhere.
The group then looked around the art show. Sam and Rook walked together, with Rook noticing something was off, but not being able to pin it on anything exact. Raz was with Mindy, though he didn’t find anything either. Memphis had more luck, and was able to determine that it was indeed where the art show was by exploring the various parts of the school.

Brytta however was stuck with Madison, who proudly showed her his exhibit in the show, which was several pictures of himself. Brytta spoke nonsense French words back at Madison, but he could not tell what words they were.

After checking out the art show, Sam and Rook looked around the school for Josiah. They exchanged pleasantries, with Josiah asking about Raz. After exchanging the little info they had, the three decided to gather everyone minus Hakim and Madison for a meeting of the minds.

Everyone from the SGAA and St. Brigit, except for madison and hakim, gathered like intended. The group pooled information, which was that the source of the unusual happening was in the art show. Raz made a modification to detect minute specs of Glamour on his glamometer, then he used it to find the source of the glamour sucking.

After a brief search, a painting is found by Raz and Memphis. Raz detects it with his meter, but Memphis detected it with his soul, or the feeling the painting was trying to suck it out. It was immediately decided on that the painting needed to be destroyed, for which a plan was hatched.

A plan is made for a public speech by Hakim to distract the crowd while a hired thug bruns up the painting. The painting would be given a first place ribbon in order to make it look like an act from another school. Pug remarked that there would be no trouble to get Hakim talking.

The speech began, with Hakim being long winded as predicted. The thug grabbed the painting without detection, then took it outside to burn. Memphis made sure he is on camera before the flames begin in order to have an alibi. The plan goes perfectly as Memphis alarms the crowd about the fire outside.

Then Memphis jumps on stage to tell Hakim his Glamour issue is solved. Hakim was annoyed, but storms off when the satyr begins the Gift of Pan. Penny follows after Hakim, Mindy pushes Josiah into Raz, which Josiah doesn’t resist. Then Bella opens the door to look in on the scene. She then closes the door and leaves the school in disgust.

Side Story 3: Encampments and Dinosaurs

It was the far future, yet the far past. Humanity from a far future and different dimension was taking resources from the Dinosaur conglomerate of the 8 races. The situation was dire and action was needed.

Humanity had enslaved many of the elders and young. They controlled them as foot soldiers to quell any dinosaur resistance. Many a brother and sister had died at each others hands because of this dark human deed.

It took weeks to find the main base, but it finally showed itself to the wise spymasters of the anklesaur tribe. Soon, the main base was in view of the Jurassic agents, and they knew what had to be done.

The compy snuck in with stealthy ease, disabling a turret and keeping an eye out for humans.

The tricerotops rushed the base, with the velociraptor doing crazy ninja raptor stuff freeing comrades to fight at the resistance side. Explosions were everywhere! The explosions had explosions, which had further explosions! The Pterydactyl dropped coconuts everywhere and, and ….

“Mindy, I hate to interrupt but does the brontosaurus get a flanking bonus in grassy plains,” Lord Darkshire spoke up from his end of the table, Mindy having taken his DM screen.

“No, they get bonuses to lasers and laser missiles and Sharknado bombs!”

Lord Darkshire looked at Mindy for a moment, while the rest of the SGAA sat around the table. “Wait, what!? Sharknado bombs?”

On Saturday, the day after the fateful school board meeting, plans for the epic gym-based concert moved along nicely. The SGAA gathered in their club room to discuss prep work for the concert, minus Desmond. The Sidhe quarterback was busy picking out the perfect suit to escort the fair Bella to the concert in. He chose extremely well for such an occasion.

The rest of the SGAA planned for the Sister of the Heartless performance. Most of the planning was straightforward enough for what was expected when one plans a concert. Though because most situations the group found themselves in had a bad habit of turning into a cluster that rhymes with ducks, it was decided that some preparation for a bad outcome would be wise. Though prep for only one bunk for an unmentioned art on Rook’s part was decided on, since no other arts came in mind for contingency purposes.

Most of the SGAA pitched in on the setup phase, though Sam needed to spend that part of the day studying for tests. During this time Memphis, Raz, and Rook set up prep for a to-be-used bunk, which would involve interrupting the Sisters’ concert. The lights would change the decor from goth to disco, and over the school’s PA system Disco Inferno would play. This was to be used as part of a bunk for Rook, who would reveal his Hawaiian shirt and dance to the music.

Throughout the day some of the students who were helping set up would go off to get things that were needed, but return a little late and drained of energy for some unknown reason. This piqued Memphis’s interest, but the cause was not discovered by goat-man-do.

At the suggestion of Memphis, Rook asked Chelle if she was opening for the Sisters of the Heartless. Chelle at first did not want to sound presumptuous in asking, but the fangirl decided to go for it when Rook suggested she should simply ask if the band had an opening act. Thus the SGAA would be able to listen to some good music, at least until the main act began to play.

With the main preparations underway, Memphis briefly left the school to grab his hungry-hungry-gloves just in case the situation went south. Also to pay a favor back, Memphis contacted Fat Tony and gave him a list of cars that would be parked during the concert which were not cool to take.

Desmond drove to Bella’s to pick her up before the concert. As she answered the door Des noticed that she was impressed, despite her best attempt to hide it. Meanwhile, Rook picked up Sam on his bike. And Raz picked up Mindy on his.

With Skyla indisposed with official kingdom business, Memphis picked up random high school girl #46. Brytta would attend the concert as her alter ego “Jessica James” to convert the sinners from inside the mass act of sin and debauchery. Lord Darkshire and Anastasia most likely were having their own private “concert” of sorts.

Once the time arrived for the concert to start, Chaos Across Infinity took the stage as the epic opening act. As the band started to rock, Memphis activated the Gift of Pan. Nobody noticeably botched their resistance to said gift, though several of the Changeling couples danced noticeably closer.

As Mindy and Raz danced, a fellow student named Elliot asked to cut in. Raz denied him. Though Elliot’s noticeable crush on Mindy perplexed the Pooka, for she had never noticed him before, let alone his crush.

Brytta on the other hand grooved into the feel of the Gift of Pan and approached one of the members of the running team. After some flirting, she managed to win out over the other girls there, with a make-out dance session ensuing.

The biggest upset of the night was when Yrtalien whisked Bella away from Des. The Yrtmeister cut in on Des’s dance with a flashy use of Grandeur, and seemingly stole Bella away with no effort, which left the quarterback stunned.

After the last song was played by Chelle’s band, Desmond requested the microphone from Chelle. In front of everyone, Des described what happened and threw down the gauntlet for a duel. Yrtalien laughed and declared a dance off. Des accepted the terms. Bella revelled in the the attention.

Memphis and Raz went backstage to set up the dance off with the Sisters of the Heartless. They agreed to play for it, though they asked that Chelle judge the contest. The terms were agreed upon, then Raz and Memphis headed back out to the gym to set the dance off up. Mindy was chosen to referee while the front of the stage was set aside for the dancing pair.

With everything set, the Sisters appeared on stage and declared the dance off begun. As they appeared, Brytta took notice. The Eshu mistook them for Fae who did not know themselves. This peaked her interest greatly.

With the music flowing through the air, Des and Yrt began their dance. Though it lasted mere minutes, every second of the duel was epic and intense. Des started off slow, but ended fantastically with some Windrunner and Quicksilver thrown in for good measure.

With the contest over, Yrtalien admitted defeat and Chelle announced Desmond the winner. The mood of the concert was one of excited and awesomeness. Then all hell broke loose.

A Gargoyle-vampire thing burst through the skylight and landed in the middle of the gym. The mystery guest declared the Sisters of the Heartless sirens as its prey. The Gargoyle also declared it would kill all witnesses, which was the signature it needed for its own death warrant.

Brytta ordered her Shadow to attack the monster while she ran to the band. She hurriedly told them she could get them away and not to worry. The Sisters’ complied and left out the back. Sam followed suit in order to assist Brytta.

Rook went for his sister, then sent her to Raz to help with crowd control. Then the troll activated the Dragon’s Ire in full glory. Memphis ran off to get his gloves out of the locker room. Desmond prepared himself for a fight by unsheathing his invisible blade.

The shadow monster attacked first, then Desmond attacked with his sword. Rook then took advantage of his Ire of the Dragon and struck the Gargoyle with three hits, brutalizing the Garg. The Gargoyle demanded to know who the hell they were, with Rook only giving him a warning to leave.

The gargoyle refused foolishly. Memphis struck its backside with his gloves, though they did not feed on their target. Rook finished the assassin off with a few more strikes. As the beast fell Rook mentioned that the Gargoyle had its warning.

After the inside situation was finished, Raz, Memphis and Rook headed out back after Brytta. Mindy stayed behind to do first aid. Desmond helped with crowd control.

Meanwhile, Brytta led the band to their tour bus. Their manager, Liz, open the door. Just as Lillith was telling the manager the town was too hot, Liz shifted into an lithe-looking-assassin that wore a head wrap. Brytta ordered her shadow monster to attack the new assassin while the rest of her group ran back to school.

On the way back to school, Brytta’s group ran into Raz’s group. Memphis and Rook went to assist the shadow monster. That battle would happen off screen while the band chatted with the remaining SGAA.

It was revealed that the band were vampires that wanted to recruit and turn Chelle. They were also anarchists against whatever centuries old establishment vampires had. Raz relayed some information about what he and the rest of the SGAA was. Then the fight was over, with the assassin bastard doing a surprising amount of damage to the combatants involved.

As Rook talked to the Sisters, his phone rang. On the phone was a voice stating that his sister has been kidnapped by the caller. The angry troll gave a warning to the caller, then handed the phone to Lillith. She talked with the mystery caller. The caller was the third assassin, and he wanted to trade the girl for the band.

The SGAA plus Sisters regrouped in the club room. Plans were made, then the group took the Sisters’ bus to the clearing that the meeting was set to take place. Memphis drove there after Raz double checked the engine for tampering.

Rook texted Bella out of courtesy stating if any of her plans that could be against the SGAA are set tonight, she should move them back a day due to Rook not caring about killing people currently. Bella responded with a do what he needed to do.

Lillith tried to talk about the offer to Chelle with Rook, but Raz suggested they table it until after the rescue. The Malchavian member of the band was intrigued when Rook mentioned voices in his head, though she found what Rook’s voice said to be boring.

At the meeting, the vampire stood next to an unconscious Chelle, and he was controlling a huge amount of possesed looking wolves. Being that it was easy to do, Memphis hopscotched Chelle to the SGAA and everyone rushed back on the bus to leave.

Memphis did some donuts to kill a majority of the vamp’s wolves, then he got the fuck out of there. During the drive home, it was discovered Chelle was bitten on the neck. Mindy healed her after Lillith assured the group that Chelle wasn’t turned into a vampire yet.

Then came the discussion, Lillith offered immortality and fame to Chelle. Rook shrugged at immortality, but told Lillith flat out Chelle would get the fame whether or not she joined the Sisters.

Chelle was then brought in on the conversation and Lillith and Rook presented their arguments in front of her. Rook’s final argument of Chelle only being sixteen, not even near her full potential and a band as famous as the Sisters was asking her to join was a point Lillith gave to Rook.

Chelle’s choice that she did not want to be a vampire currently was respected by the band. The two groups wished each other well and departed. Though Memphis pointed the Sisters of the Heartless toward Yrtalien to see if he would make a good new manager.

Desmond went over to Bella’s. He told her he was checking up on her and hope she had a good time, which she said she did in so many words.

Rook made a comment to Raz about the group needing an armory. Then he escorted Sam home from their date,and afterward he double checked on his sister. After all was calm, Rook drove his bike to his usual mental ward ruins spot to down a couple of bottles and unwind from the stress of the night.

(or Garçon De La Manchego and the Ziggurat of Swiss)

Though the excitement of the football game died down on it’s way to future nostalgia, the pranks against Yrtalien have slowly escalated. Memphis’s subtle phase of the prank campaign was in full effect. The first main prank involved all of the new Sidhe’s class assigned desks had one leg that was slightly longer or shorter than the other three. For the second, Memphis switched out Yrtalien’s football uniform with a size smaller but retained the size labels of the original.

Meanwhile, Desmond spent his time finding out more information about Juan’s disappearance. He checked the previous workplace of Juan’s parents. Though apologetic, they could not give Des any information about a forwarding address due to company policy. The transfer Sidhe mailed a letter to Juan’s old residence with delivery confirmation. With notice of delivery, the quarterback discovered the letter went straight to Juan’s house without being forwarded.

Also during this time, a new band sensation swept through the halls of Hughes High. The student body loved the new music, though the Changeling part found it somewhat off putting. The band’s name was Sisters of the Heartless. The name of the lead singer and bassist was Lilith. Eve played lead guitar and sung backup vocals. The keys of the keyboard were masterfully tapped by Delilah. And the final member, Jezabelle, played the drums.

This lead up to the SGAA sitting in the club room one particular morning. Raz was in the midst of learning the secrets to the clockwork rifle he acquired previously. His new knowledge of the Art of Daedelon made this endeavor much easier. There were some downsides, however.. His lack of awareness convinced Mindy that the Nocker’s face would make a perfect canvas for markers. Memphis assisted the doggy Pooka, making sure only to hand her non-permanent markers. The satyr also slid a few wet-naps into Raz’s pocket for later use.

In the midst of the Van Gogh of the modern age doing her art, Rook’s sister burst into the clubroom. Chelle was really excited and asking people to guess what made her so. The fangirl revealed that she emailed the Sisters of the Heartless, and that the band agreed to come to Hughes High to play in their gym. After an apathetic response by Memphis, Chelle declared him dead to her.

Then Rook’s sister questioned out loud about the how in getting the school to approve it, bringing the group reluctantly into a brainstorming session. The over-hyperness continued to make apparent how obviously into the band she was. Memphis suggested a petition, though reminded her he was still dead to her. Chelle promptly declared that the goat was now a zombie.

After calming down, she noticed the two new members in the SGAA clubroom. She was introduced to Des and the new Brytta. The new Eshu was referred to as a new used car by Memphis. Then Chelle noticed Raz and was concerned, but Des told her that he was merely in a gun coma. This did not lessen her concern. Memphis knocked the Nocker over to get Raz out of said coma.

Then Memphis yelled for Mindy to start on petitions, causing her to run hurriedly around the room. Memphis, however, worked on making some with the ‘borrowed’ mimeograph machine conveniently in the clubroom. Raz grumbled about being woken up so roughly, but he was interrupted by a petition being forced onto him. Noticing class was close to start, he begrudgingly took it and went to class.

Every SGGA member was given a petition by Chelle. Memphis asks if she was sure, since the band sounded like Creed but dark. Chelle merely gave him a death stare. Such ill feelings made any reluctant member motivated to get signatures.

As the day went on, it became obvious to the SGAA that the whole school was for the band. The petitions practically filled themselves. All one had to do was just mentioned the band and fellow students rushed to fill them out.

During the morning, Desmond went to Bellasandra to get her opinion on the band. She was surrounded by other popular girls. The quarterback used this to his advantage. He asked the group if they would be willing to sign the petition to get the band to play. At the mention of the concert, the gaggle of girls squealed with glee. Des noticed Bella flinched ever so briefly. Afterward, the Sidhe-she asked to talk to him briefly, alone.

As soon as they were alone, Bella questioned him of his reason. Desmond told her his reason was this was for Rook’s sister. He claimed free glamour if nothing else, though he didn’t know the how. That reason somewhat satisfied Bella’s curiosity.

Then Desmond asked Bella out to the concert. She played coy surprisingly well for Bella, mentioning Yrtalien was also interested. Social status of both Yrtalien and Desmond were thrown around. Bella decided to wait and see, and the two parted ways.

Also during the morning, Rook did some research on the band. They were a pseudo-goth looking band. All the music sounded technically good, though everything he watched or listened to sounded strangely off. He browsed various youtube videos and noticed that they had allot of vampiric imagery. The rest of the day was oddly uneventful.

The next morning, The SGAA members arrived at school like they normally did. They noticed something different from the norm as they entered the building. A huge crowd of angry parents were at the principal’s office. There was a mixture of concern and pissed off in regards to the band coming to play at the school. Memphis stood on the lockers opposite the office and smiled serenely at the parents. Raz ignored the crowd and made his way to class.

The crowd was a veritable who’s who of oppressive assholes, including some that have attempted to make Rook’s mom lose her liquor license or the bar. The leader of this rabble was Margaret Constance Forest, Percy’s mom. She talked heatedly with the principal and felt the firm hand into the light was needed to prevent such a travesty from coming to the town.

The uptight den mother was an active member of the local church, the Church of Christ the Redeemer. Forest was one of the more fundamentalist members as well. Anyone who had political aspirations in town had to be a member of the church. The church even had its own elementary school, but the students had to go the public route for middle school an up. Their mascot, not surprisingly enough, was the Crusader.

Seeing Midge being her uncheery self, Memphis taunted her by telling her about her precious Percy signing a petition. She yelled at him a wrathful denial, which was strong enough to knock his Fae self out of commision. She loudly declared that if the principal would do nothing, she would take it to the school board that night.

Memphis was left with only his Fae memories. Not remembering why he was at school, he decided to head out. Rook immediately texted Raz about what happened to Memphis. Brytta tried to distract Memphis as he left to slow him down. To delay him further, Des quickly went to and let out the air in one of Memphis’s car tires.

Memphis arrived to the car and started changing the tire, mixed with some cursing. Raz came soon after to talk to the briefly former satyr. They talked, giving everyone else a little more time to think of a solution. After an eureka moment, Des placed some Glamour into a tire cap and gives it to Memphis. This reverts him back to Goat-Man-Do status.

After the situation settled, Brytta asked the obvious question about what happened. Raz gave her a detailed explanation on what happened to Memphis. He began with what Glamour and Banality were. Then he talked about what the Midge woman did.

He told Brytta that the church lady was an Autumn person. Autumn people could unconsciously wield Banality in ways that could hurt Changelings. Her attack caused Memphis to retreat into his mortal shell. The satyr called Midge a conformist Dalek. Then there was talk about what Dauntain were and that they were an inverse of Changelings. Rook gave the example of last year’s librarian being one. Not extreme measures were usually taken with such foes, though brake-lines seemed to always be on the table. Then the group went on to discuss the dreaming-trip-covered-up-by-Machu-Pichu with Brytta.

Now that church lady Forest wanted to stop the band, Memphis was more in favor of what she hated. The band was now the lesser evil. The fact that kids loved what their parents hated would be good use in thwarting her. Rook discussed his research briefly with the group, saying the band was not too obscene. Brytta suggested a warehouse as backup. The group finally decided that the power of fangirls must be used at the School Board meeting.

Des sought Bella out. He told her about Memphis, which made her laugh. After she settled, Des told her about the fangirl plan. The quarterback asked her to encourage any fans to picket the school board meeting. Des told her she would gain more popularity from rallying them. She asked if he was sure he really wanted to band to come, and he gave a roundabout lesser evil reply. In a plot twist that seemed to echo in the halls of Hughes high, Des told her the price of this would be a date. Bella responds by telling him to dress nice.

Memphis went to speak to his fellow delinquents. He indirectly provoked them onto Percy. He also indirectly sent them after the homes and vehicles of the parents trying to stop the band. Then he mentions it is important not to get caught. Afterward, Memphis makes sure to be seen in class. The satyr makes the teacher suspicious by acting like what a model student would be like from Saved by the Bell.

Rook talked to Chelle about rallying fans to go to the school board meeting. She asked what the plan was. Not knowing what else to say, Rook told her to come to the SGAA room at lunch for further planning.

During the morning, Brytta spoke to Matthew Hardson. He was student journalist for the school paper who was very paranoid about the SGAA. The Eshu tells him a story about that it was rumored that some of the more zealous religious people in town beat their kids. Some of them have shown up to school with bruises easily covered by clothing. Brytta was especially concerned with Percy, since he flinched from her like an abuse victim. She also mentioned that such a story would be good for his future career.

Matthew listened and was concerned, though he asked her if she was a member of the SGAA. He informs her about the club’s rumored hatred for Percy. Brytta plays that down, and ends with that as a concerned student, she wanted Percy’s situation to be known.

Raz questioned other Changelings in the school about their reaction to the music and got the same general answer. At lunch, he did further research into it along with his Pooka assistant, Mindy. His preliminary analysis of the technique showed the music was good to great compared to other bands. Hs machine analysis for lower frequencies found nothing as well. Though the more he listened to it, the more the music’s feel reminded him of the dead man who judged the contest to save Mindy’s life. This left him with much unanswered and to ponder.

At lunch, Chelle met with the SGAA in the club room. She pumped Memphis for information and ideas, most illegal, to use to help the band. Rook’s sister was all for breaking some laws, which concerned Memphis. The satyr thought she was a much more calm person. Rook interjected that the group should minimize collateral damage. During this time Brytta informed the group of her talk with the student journalist, which made Memphis proud of her.

The group put out many ideas to try diverting church members from the School Board meeting. The Church of Satan was one red herring suggested, but it didn’t last too long. The idea of the imaginary Well’s Crossings Red Devils little league team brought some giggles.

During the brainstorming, Desmond researched on one of the computers. He looked up how similar parent groups were stopped. The separation of church and state was a common theme that kept popping up. This ploy could be used, but the SGAA needed an ACLU lawyer, or someone to pose as one.

Sam suggested John Smith for the role. Memphis used a Hall Pass bunk and casted Willow Wisp to find the wayward teacher. Slowly, but surely, the wisp lead to the club room’s window. Memphis moved the blinds and saw John Smith was attempting to enter the room. He opened the window to let him in.

John Smith was soon brought up to speed about the situation. The teach advisor Sidhe also was introduced to Brytta and Desmond. He was handed an Ipod to listen to the Sisters of the Heartless’s music, though the device amazed him more than the actual music. After being informed with all the club new and was planning, he gladly agreed to fill the role of the lawyer. Chelle, excited about a plan coming together, ran out the room proclaiming her intention to have her band play at the meeting as well.

Memphis called up Raz to get him started on a distraction to pull church people away from the meeting. Raz took the lesser evil of faking a church revival. The other idea involved planted evidence and cops, which made Mindy a concerned puppy. The object of the plan was to forge a letter that got lost in the mail of a visiting preacher. This would be given to the right person and hurried preparations would keep people from the School Board, in hypothesis.

While doing research, an autumn person student convinced the pair that they should hold an actual revival. Mindy and Raz fervently gather materials for a tent and to put the word out. Raz even managed to get a preacher scheduled for the event, the Reverend Jacob James. He was so impressed and humbled by Raz’s faith that he made an effort to arrive as quickly as possible.

Memphis called back to check on the progress, and he was dumbfounded by what Raz and Mindy were doing. Though he decided to roll with it. To take advantage of the revival, the other SGAA members would delay the real Reverend and have Brytta take his place at the sermon. She would pretend to be his daughter, Jessica James.

Des, Rook, and Memphis left the school to delay the reverend. Memphis stole the appropriate materials for a fake city worker stop to be set up. The city workers would be played by Des and Rook. They would slightly injure the reverend’s radiator. Memphis would play the role of a concerned citizen that would ‘help’ the target in phase two of the plan.

Phase one had Des and Rook working the fake checkpoint warning traffic of trouble ahead. Rook spotted the reverend in line almost immediately. After stopping him, Des distracted Jacob James. Rook swiftly stabbed the radiator with his sword without too much problem, despite Krahe’s usual wanting to kill everyone. Then the reverend was told he could go on ahead.

During this, a panicked Raz calls Memphis, but the satyr assures him the revival still works with the current plan and calmed him down. Then Memphis saw phase two begin as the reverend’s car stopped from overheating. The satyr pulled up to offer ‘assistance’. The reverend gratefully accepted. Memphis did several things to make it worse, which caused the engine to seize up.

Then Memphis told the target of a small garage down the road owned by Fat Tony. He was grateful to Memphis and went. The satyr then called the Tony of large size and told him about the new customer. He asked and got him to delay the traveller. He also informed Tony not to let Jacob see the coke in the oil. Memphis then texted Raz, who responded calling Memphis a bad, bad man.

Meanwhile, Raz took Mindy to dinner to get her away from Autumn people. After a bit, this form of banality detox worked. Mindy became slightly panicked about the revival as well. Raz calmed her down and told her about the new Memphis plan. He also suggested that Mindy should help Brytta greet the church revival goers, and she gladly agreed.

With further thought, Raz realized they needed more help to get Brytta to look the part. He called up Anastasia. The Nocker informed her first of the Autumn person mind rape that caused him to put together a real revival. This gave Anastasia a good chuckle. Then he informed her of the need to make Brytta look the part of the Reverend-they-delayed’s daughter. The Pooka asked Raz to supply the money for a shopping trip. Raz called Memphis, then referred him to Anastasia. Memphis agreed to Anastasia’s conditions.

Memphis drove to the school and picked up Brytta. He then drove to the clothing store, which scared the hell out of the Eshu. Anastasia immediately grabbed Brytta and begun a clothes shopping montage, with Memphis playing the music accompaniment. After the clothes were picked, she did Brytta’s hair and makeup. The end result was a reverend’s daughter in perfect conservative dress, heavy makeup, and tightly drawn hair.

With Brytta dressed for the part, the revival soon began. She greeted everyone with Mindy, getting a perfect look at each and everyone’s face. After everyone was seated, She gave her sermon, which served as the bunk for an awesome Talecraft cantrip. She gave a passionate speech to her flock,and encouraged them to be good. She told of some who felt they were not strong enough in faith to let the band play, for how could they convert anyone if they kept those types away. She also encouraged to be more imaginative with doing good works. Let band come, for it would be Christ-like was the core of the message. At the end of her speech her audience was completely enthralled, and the revival was at its zenith. (The full speech can be read in the adventure log below this post)

Elsewhere, at the school board meeting, there was surprisingly low attendance. Midge Forest gave her standard speech and sat down. John Smith then took his turn as the ‘ACLU lawyer’. He at first talked about free speech, but then referenced obscenity. A local town’s designation for what is obscene should play a part in the decision he said. After making this point, folks from the revival burst in and filled the room. They chanted for the school board to let the band play and praise the lord. This caused Forest’s jaw to drop in disbelief, which many of picture was taken of.

Chelle and Chaos Across Infinity then started up a set, playing to their hearts content. The school board looked in shock. Memphis mouthed for them to vote yes. They voted for the band to come unanimously, setting the stage for the concert to happen the following night.

This is a transcript of the sermon written by Unkunvinst during the 3rd session.

Welcome, Christian brothers and sisters. I stand before you today because, just as our Heavenly Father sent his Son Jesus to minister to the world, so my father sent me, his daughter, to bring God’s message to you today. And just as the Holy Spirit was with Jesus, so my father, deep in prayer, is guiding me tonight.

We all know that today it is very difficult to be a Christian. The secular world surrounds and threatens us, and if we lack faith we will be swallowed up by the sins, the seductions, the blasphemes of the world. We need revivals like this to hearten and focus us. But even so, we must never forget that our work, the work of Christ, is in the world. In a life lived for Jesus, there is no difference between Church morality and day-after-day-after-God-blessed-day morality! Only a hypocrite would deny it! Remember the Gospels! Jesus himself spent his time with lepers and tax collectors — those outcast and morally diseased. He even showed compassion to a prostitute, and that compassion brought her to God. We must have faith that we, in Jesus name, can do the same. We are called to minister to those not yet enflamed by God’s grace.

Now, I’ve heard local Christians are trying to stop a salacious, fiendish concert! My friends in Christ, though it is always right to oppose evil, the Lord has spoken in my heart and revealed that this is not the path of true faith. On no! We must not fear the unbelievers; we must seize this opportunity to be more than Christians — to be “Christ-like” warriors in the battle against pure evil!

Jesus, praise his name, said that the faith of a mustard seed could move mountains and anywhere two are gathered in his name, he is present. Are we not true believers?! Are we not gathered in his name?! Like Samuel, we must be open and obedient when God calls us. We must have a vision of our faith, as strong as steel and as unyielding as a steam roller, yet as tender and prized as a delicate flower. With vision, hope, and Christ’s love, we will achieve the greatest miracle of our age: the mass conversion of a heathen generation to Christ! Join me, on a divine mission for souls! Amen!

Should my attempt to get us out of summary execution at the hands of the court of the High King fail, I wanted you to know something. You mystify me. You confuse me. You dazzle me. I feel lost when I am around you. I am really sorry for all the trouble I have caused you over the years. I hope my death buys you a long and happy life. I am sorry I won’t be there to see it.

May the Dreaming smile on you always,

Juan

P.S. If I find out what happens on the other side, I will let you know.

The first high school football game of the season was near for Hughes High. Both school and town were in full swing preparation for it. As game inched closer, Desmond took notice that the sophomore Yosemite Jones has been attempting to sabotage him.

The attempts were inept, but the intent was clear. Before Des arrived and became the star quarterback, Yosemite was the year’s assumed star. The previous star quarterback graduated last school year. And Yosemite saw Des as an usurper to what was rightfully his.

On the other side of football madness, Memphis was taking under-the-table bets on anything and everything in regards to the game, which meant the whole school knew about it. First sacks, win or loss with point spreads, and odd occurrences were just some of the bets available.

Being a reasonable satyr, Memphis went to Des to discuss the game in greater detail. Detail meant to increase profit of course.. He ask the quarterback if the Sidhe could make sure the game was won within 14 points. Des said he would for a price. The terms for the fix would be that Memphis would torment Yosemite. And thus a contract of sorts was reached between the two.

First, Memphis went to Bella for assistance. He needed help retrieving Yosemite’s class schedule. Bella demanded payment in the form of glamour. Further haggling ensued, but an agreement was not reached. Memphis indirectly inferred to her that she would be on the receiving end of his ire. He then went to the school office, where he cut a senior office worker in on some of the take if the senior provided Memphis with the Yosemite info the satyr sought.

Meanwhile, Brytta noticed something off about the lack of one of her fellow students in class. Reginald Blue was absent for the past few days. He also was the guy inside the school’s Honey Badger mascot suit, which meant the football team abused him ritually as a good luck charm. And he never, ever, missed a game.

After her English class, Brytta met with Miss Woolworth. The teacher knew not of the reason for Reggie’s absence. There was no notification or doctor’s note for it. The Eshu decided to bring this oddity up when she next met with her fellow SGAA members at lunch.

During the morning before lunch, Memphis’s torment of Yosemite was in full swing. Memphis stored cans of shaving cream in a school freezer for later use.. Most of Memphis time though was spent on Yosemite’s car. First, the satyr covered in Saran Wrap, since permanent damage to a car was bad form. Then Memphis covered the car in vaseline and honey.

Afterward in the SGAA room, Memphis asked Rook about what the troll would do to Tony that was not lethal as research on his torment of Yosemite. This made Rook a bit uncomfortable.

While meeting with fellow players throughout the day, Desmond heard concern that their lucky charm mascot was missing. Des heard about the toilet dunking and the pole ramming that were good luck rituals of the highest caliber. The quarterback told the team he would look into it.

At the SGAA lounge at lunch, Des asked Mindy if she knew anything about the missing mascot, because Des felt she was the type of person who would know. After the Mindy mentioned that the Sidhe must have known about her secret title of Godpooka, Mindy told Des that he should ask the new Eshu, for Brytta and Reggie were the best of friends in middle school. Brytta went along with Mindy and stated her own concerns about Reggie’s unexcused absences. Des asked Memphis for further help because of the secret sources the satyr obviously had.

So Memphis looked at the super no-so-secret student directory and called the Blue residence. The lady on the other end of the call denied that there was a Reggie living there. Upon checking the yellow and white pages, Memphis confirmed that the number was correct. plus the town only had one Blue household.

Then Memphis pushed Des onto Raz so the satyr could continue his campaign of terror. His next plan of attack was to replace an art piece done by Yosemite in art class with a nude of the elderly teacher. The satyr met with the anime club girl to commision the art. With the promise of bootleg anime, she agreed.

Back to the search of reggie, Des went to the office to talk to the school staff. He relayed his concerns, which in turn made them proud that the new student would take the initiative to look out for one of his classmates. They gave him Reggie’s address and number. He called but was rebuffed the same way as Memphis. Just before leaving, the office warned him about hanging out with that Memphis Raines kid.

Brytta, Des, Memphis, Raz and Rook went to Reggie’s house to get to the bottom of the mystery. The remaining SGAA went to class. Upon arriving, Brytta and Des walked to the front door and knocked. Memphis snuck around the house to peep into windows creepily. Raz and Rook observed the house for anything unusual.

Des felt something happen to his mind briefly, but managed to talk normal enough to the lady when she answered the door. According to her, there was no Reginald at the house for the twenty years that she lived there. As Brytta was about to ask something, her mind went blank, and she wandered off. After his talk was finished, Des then decided to creepily peep into windows as well. After Brytta walked a block away, her memory returned.

Raz and Rook looked over the house and noticed a cantrip of sorts covering the whole of it. Upon further inspection, the two realized it was very similar to Bella’s use of Chicanery. Raz then went to work to capture the cantrip in a bottle. Upon his second infusion cantrip attempt, he successfully removed it from the house and caught it.

Upon removal, Des knocked on the front door again. There was no answer, but the door was unlocked. The Sidhe went into the house and saw the mother was in a panic. She now remembered her son. Reggie was missing. But the mom did not remember when or how. Des calmed her with a hot drink while the others searched the house for clues.

In Reggie’s bedroom a mysterious gear was found. It was definitely chimerical and far more advanced than anything Raz has ever laid eyes on. This got his attention, to say the least. To say the most might be a bit creepy.

The group gathered back down stairs. Memphis then made an origami dog as a pyretics bunk to chase down who left the gear. The dog followed in a slow and winding trail. Eventually, the group arrived back at the school. They were led to a large grate in the school’s boiler room.

The grate was removed easily enough. Before entering, the group texted the absent SGAA members to give them a heads up on the situation. Then the trek through the tunnel began. It was a long walk. Service tunnel became stonework, then stonework became foundry. After a while, a large door with a complicated lock blocked the groups way.

The door was knocked on, and two clockwork eyes looked out through a peephole. It asked for authorization. Bullshitting was used, but the sentry clock-blocked the group. Brytta then used Naming and a psychic paper bunk to to show authorization from someone who ended up being called the Mechician. This convinced the guard, and it opened the door to allow the five-member-party in.

After entry, the clockwork guard realized his error and called for backup. Three clockwork guards in all attacked the group with clockwork rifles. This aroused Raz’s interest, so to speak. Two guards attacked and slightly hurt Rook. The other injured Brytta a bit more than that.

Desmond injured a guard first. Then Memphis used his natural awesomeness to become bait for the guards on their next attack. Raz completely disassembled one of them, taking it out commision. Brytta’s shadow pet, Sacan Ealdor, injured one. Then Rook smote the rest in a barrage five slashes. Afterward, Raz hardened Brytta with Infusion to help her with any further damage from attacks.

The group pushed forward, venturing further into the foundry. In the next room, they found Reggie strapped to an examination table. On the opposing wall was two giant hangar-like doors. Des gave a simple test to check if Reggie was being mind-controlled. When he was satisfied, he released the masochist-mascot. Upon questioning, Reginald told the five that the clockwork automata questioned him thoroughly about football rules and everything he knew about the game.

Meanwhile, Memphis used Portal Passage on the hangar doors. He pissed the outline of a door as a bunk, and it turned into a surprisingly nice doorway. When he opened it, a legion of clockwork was revealed. Among them were clockwork soldiers, tanks and ornithopters to say the least. Memphis closed the door immediately. Everyone ran back to the school, with Raz welding every door shut that he could on the way.

After returning, Reggie’s memory of his time in the foundry was obscured by the Mists. He was told that someone kidnapped him and put him in the boiler room to be hidden. Not wanting to jinx the game, Reginald ran to get to his costume so Hughes High would win the game. Des followed him shortly afterward to try to lessen the good-luck-ritual’s savagery.

The rest of the SGAA, including Mindy, was texted, and healing was given by her to those injured. Rook then texted Bella to check if a clockwork legion was part of her current plans. With the usual “What!?” response, asking Rook where he was.

Bella and the Unseelies met the SGAA minus Des at the bleachers. Desmond joined his teammates, but was unable to prevent the good luck rituals from taking place. Memphis paid some of the underclassmen to sit behind Yosemite and harass him subtly. And just before the game, Yosemite gave Des a threatening warning.

The start of the game went off with the usual excitement from the crowd. The Hughes High Honey Badgers ran onto the field, breaking through the standard paper sign. The crowd cheered even more and spirits were in full swing. Then, the opposing team came onto the field. Confusion set in as they appeared to be clockwork robots in football uniforms. The fact that regular people could see them concerned the SGAA even more.

One came to the coin toss to parley. It demanded the Immortal Eye, or the Honey Badgers would be destroyed. Des had no idea what the Dalek-sounding robot was talking about, so the coin was tossed to begin the game with Des calling the right coin state.

Flutterfeet, however informed Raz that legend was that four keys known as the Immortal Eyes could be used to unlock the last remaining gate to Arcadia. Two of the eyes were Seelie. The other two were Unseelie.

With his team confused, Des gave a rousing speech that used the fact that Reggie was already tortured to convince the team that victory was guaranteed. This magic of friendship reassured the team and lit their spirits on fire.

Memphis used ensnare on the opposing team using an epic air guitar solo as a bunk. He destroyed the team, but missed the coach. With a word from the coach, a new clockwork team appeared soon after.

For the first play, Des used Quicksilver on his teammates. The Sidhe quarterback botched. The Honey Badgers stood still as the clockwork players ran past them and scored the first touchdown of the game.

The second play almost fared much better for Des. He successfully used the Quicksilver cantrip on himself. Rook successfully used Discord 2 on Des. Bella even used a cantrip to help her current object of curiosity. To Fae eyes, it looked that Des split into 6 copies moving ultrafast. He was still tackled outright though. While this was going on, Brytta used her magics to find out the true name of the clockwork coach.

After this, Memphis decided to join the fray. He walked out onto the field in uniform, and called upon the Wyrd to take advantage of his satyr abilities. Rook joined the field shortly later, and Tony joined the field to be a dick mess with Rook.

On the second down and despite Tony, Rook protected Des long enough for the quarterback to throw the ball. Des was tackled shortly after. Memphis caught the ball and made an epic touchdown. After the touchdown, Brytta successfully used her Naming magic to turn the clockwork coach into a non-clockwork jockstrap. This hindered the opposing team’s cohesion greatly.

After the last play, Raz noticed Bella was casting another cantrip. This time, however, it was not targeting the opposing team. Raz clapped out of rhythm to mess up her clapping bunk. Brytta noticed as well and told Sacan to scare Bella a bit. The Unseelie Sidhe completed her casting just before being enveloped by the shadow-monster. She fell down the bleacher steps and inadvertently started a riot in the stands. The remaining SGAA, minus Darksire, in the stands discreetly left before the rioting got revved up too much. Anastasia and Lord Darkshire were already somewhere more private long before the rioting became an issue for the two.

The next play saw the fruition of Bella’s cantrip. One moment, Memphis was fine. Then the next all the opposing players looked exactly the same, and the sight of the ball was lost to him. On the throw from the clockwork-quarterback, Des managed to barely catch the ball. Rook gave him a completely clear path to touchdown.

After the next kickoff, Memphis used ensnare once more to destroy the enemy team. This time, because the coach was now an inanimate jockstrap, no replacement players replaced the now scattered clockwork parts.

This caused a fumble. Both Des and Yosemite went for the ball. They struggled for a few tense moments. But in the end, Yosemite barely pulled through to score. After he made the touchdown, the sophomore went through a Chrysalis.

After the explosion of Glamour, Des carried Yosemite around like he was doing a celebratory run, but he and Memphis both had words for the new Changeling. Des was cordial, but Memphis was Memphis. Rook discreetly left the field during the chaos and kept the uniform for Sam later. The whole of the town and bleachers erupted in celebration. The game would be known as the most awesome game nobody could remember. Raz would eagerly gather up the parts of the broken opponents when convenient. Most likely he later filled a bathtub and bathed in the parts, but such thoughts are better left unthought.

Yosemite was now a Sidhe from House Alill. He had a surprising amount of comfort and awareness in his new role. His true name was Yrtalien. He refrained from joining the SGAA and instead joined the Unseelie clique. Raz introduced himself to the new Sidhe cordially.

After the game, the SGAA met back in the clubroom. Raz was tasked with leading a seance for the jockstrap using the Willow Whisper cantrip. The room and windows were darkened. Candles and scarf-covered lamps were strewn around. Memphis even played gypsy-esque music on his guitar.

Raz’s cantrip was successful, and he was able to ask Mr. Jockstrap three questions. The first answer was that the Mechician was the right hand of King Ironheart. King Ironheart was the ruler of Mechopolis. And Mechopolis was in the depths of the Middle Marshes.

When asked about the King, Flutterfeet recalled some information. Ironheart ruled his city with a literal iron fist. His name was well earned. Also, Mechopolis was not too far from the Bullydale Wastes. Raz looked for John Smith to relay this information, but he had to leave a letter in the teacher’s mail when Mr. Smith was nowhere to be found. Upon further thought, the Nocker realized he most likely had the Immortal Eye that was mentioned earlier.

During the seance, Rook received a text from Bella. She was laughing that the grate-tunnel was not there and thought the SGAA was full of it. He simply responded with an indifferent message and let the matter drop.

And, when the shaving cream was finally frozen, Memphis used it in his torment of Yrtalien. Chrysalis changed nothing.

Summer football training started, heralding the coming school year. Desmond Connolly, a recent transfer student and Sidhe knight, tried out for and became the school’s new star quarterback. He got along well with the team and training went smoothly. Though with the start of the school year closing in, Desmond observed that various teammates were fatigued more so than what was usual for training. The knight made himself a mental note to investigate this further at the start of the school year.

But soon, summer training passed, and the first day of school arrived. Brytta Sóþword walked to her class as any normal junior-year student would. Upon arrival at the girl’s locker room, she was stopped by three fellow students. The leader of the clique was Bella, the school’s popular girl. Her enforcer Tony stood by her side. And finally there was Anastasia, the head of the school’s theater club. The trio blocked Brytta from moving forward to class.

Words were exchanged, and the Unseelies declared adamantly and falsely that Brytta had insulted them. When Brytta asked sarcastically how she could make it up to them, the trio told her about the rumors going around about students disappearing in the girl’s locker room. Brytta questioned if they created the rumors. They merely chuckled. Finally Brytta asked if going in the locker room would settle the offense. The clique confirmed that was so.

Though annoyed Brytta relented and went into the locker room so she could get to class. Darkness greeted her as she walked in cautiously. After a long quiet moment, she felt something brush past her and let out a scream, which brings us a few minutes earlier in another part of the school.
Desmond walked down the hall looking for the club room of the SGAA, the school’s Changeling motley. As he closed in, he heard a dedication to Juan over the announcements, which ended with mention of auditions for his replacement would be held. As a side note, Memphis offered the student in charge of announcements a week free of interference if he ran the dedication. The announcement ended shortly before Desmond knocked on the club room door and entered.

The SGAA club membership was in full attendance this morning. Raz worked on an engine in the corner with Flutterfeet back seat mechanicking. Mindy was doing Mindy-like things better left unsaid for sanity’s sake. Memphis was kneeling on a table tuning his guitar. Rook and Sam sat together at on one of the couches. And Lord Brimstone Darkshire, wizard of the 10th level, simply lurked. Ruby was around, possibly.

Everyone turned their heads when Desmond walked in. Memphis assumed the Sidhe was there about the audition, and Mindy panicked about not having the applications ready. Introductions were exchanged easy enough. Desmond stated his name and said friends called him Des. Sam elbowed Rook in the ribs for not being more friendly. Des also mentioned he would have tried out for the captain of the fencing team, but the position was already filled. This amused Sam. Though Des’s mention of football being a better gateway to college in the South caused Sam to disappointedly agree.

As the group continued to get better acquainted with Des, a shockwave of glamour burst forth from somewhere in the building. A loud scream shortly followed. Everyone agreed that this felt like a Chrysalis and rushed forth from the club room. The club ran toward the source and ended up outside of the girl’s locker room.

Three dark chimera stood guard at the door. The three said that they were paid to let no one through the open door. But the chimera became nervous when both Des and Rook asked if their swords were the proper key. Then Memphis talked to them about their deal, and signalled Rook to kill one. Afterward, Memphis asked if their dead acquaintance would make a better meal just before the living two pounced on the dead one. Then the SGAA walked into the locker room.

Darkness and the sounds of skittering surrounded the group. Rook joked a ten dollar bet on the situation being caused by Bella, which got a muffled response further in. Raz turned on the light, and the sight of small, now-blinded chimera was around the group. Memphis acted quickly and used an ensnare cantrip to hold them in place. It was super effective. Rook used Discord 2 just in case on the group, but it would prove to be unneeded.

In the shower was the cause of the Glamour wave. Brytta laid unconscious at the foot of a spooky shadow monster, though she was beginning to stir. Against the wall and ceiling, the mentioned shadow monster pinned the Unseelie clique. A shadow gag gagged them. The SGAA was weary of the monster, though some found the situation amusing. The shadow monster engaged in dialogue with the group, asking if the three clique members were theirs. The response was a mixed, which cause more muffled noise from Bella.

Then Brytta fully woke up and saw the world through Kithain eyes for the first time. She also noticed that her skin was more tan than it had been, yet not. She saw the SGAA and Unseelies around her as Kithain, but also as the students they were. With her fully awake, the shadow monster threw the Unseelies at the group and seemingly disappeared.

Rook caught Anastasia with unusual grace and placed her next to Lord Darkshire. Bella flew into Des, they fell down, and he ended on top of her. After standing, they formally introduced themselves with Bella being quite taken. Tony landed in a dirty laundry cart courtesy of Memphis kicking said cart in front of the airborne redcap.

After that settled, the group, minus Mindy and Raz, talked to Brytta and the Unseelies to figure out what happened and to begin explanations of her new life to Brytta. Raz and Mindy used the pooka’s bouncy ball treasure to locate the missing shadow monster. The ball bounced around until finally it just bounced up and down in front of Brytta. Mindy grabbed her ball and hid behind Raz, because the monster creeped her out. As first period closed in, Memphis suggested the group move the introduction talk to the club room where the group would be less likely to cause a scene.

In the clubroom, the SGAA and Unseelies sat around Brytta, and Raz gave the talk. He explained the Chrysalis and what it meant for her now while Memphis heckled him. Sam told her she was an Eshu and gave Brytta a book that could be helpful. Brytta asked some questions, and they were answered by the group.

Upon one question, Bella revealed that the unseelie clique was attempting to ravage student in the locker room by spreading rumors. Though it was a spectacular failure, it was better than their idea on the first day of school the previous year.

Brytta also asked about magic, which Raz replied one does something and it just happens. Being a storyteller, Brytta began to tell a story after being told to try it. As she told it, she activated a Talecraft cantrip that added special effects, thus casting her first cantrip.

After the introduction to Changeling, Brytta was invited to join the SGAA, since she now met the elusive requirement regular students at the school were in the dark about. Bellasandra made a counteroffer to Brytta and invited her to join the cool kids in the Unseelies clique. The popular Sidhe stated that the Chrysalis would not have occurred if the trio didn’t do what they did in the locker room. Brytta asked if Bella was sure it would be okay since there was possibly a monster inside of the new Eshu. Bella mentioned Brytta was not the only one with a monster inside her with a slight glance to Rook. Though because of the attack, Brytta decided on the SGAA.

At the end of their group session, Memphis pulled out late-notes and the stamp for John Smith’s signature. Both SGAA and Unseelie received one and left for class without too much trouble. The morning classes passed slowly but surely. Though some members of the SGGA saw strange occurrences throughout the morning. Memphis and Brytta noticed some students appearing very tired and more absences than usual happening as the morning went on. Des and Raz however noticed the teachers were up to some very suspicious activity from the way they stared and whispered. All that had concerns brought up theirs up when the club met for lunch.

While sitting around the clubroom, Memphis and Brytta spoke of the tired students. Des mentioned he noticed the same thing during football practice during summer training. Raz and Des then made mention of the teachers, which puzzled some and concerned others. Theories were given on the situation. Though since nothing solid was known, it was decided the group needed to split into two groups to follow up leads. Des, Raz, Lord Darkshire, and Mindy investigated the teacher angle as group one. Brytta, Memphis, Rook, and Sam investigated the tired students as group two.

Group one went to Mrs. Christensen’s class first. Lord Darkshire and Raz remained outside the room while Des and Mindy went in. Des asked the teacher some questions on class work, while Mindy played eccentric bad cop. She accused the teacher for the cause, while Des tried to soothe the situation. During this, both Lord Darkshire’s and Raz’s Glamour senses tingled from some major mojo in the school. Des ended his talk with asking if he did something wrong, and the teacher responded about the first day making him paranoid.

With that Mindy removed the interrogation light from the teacher, and group one walked down the hall as lunch ended. As students moved in the hallway, Des and Raz noticed a tall dark-dressed man enter an empty classroom. They followed suit, but nobody was in the classroom when they entered.

Group two went to the nurse’s office to investigate the students going home early. Memphis told the nurse he was sick and had a headache. The nurse mentioned that was not the usual symptom or the day as she searched for a Tylenol to give to goat-man-do. The common symptom for most of the school was fatigue. Everyone thanked the nurse and exited. The symptoms sounded like the Morae trouble from the previous year.

While walking down the hall, both Memphis and Rook noticed a tall dark-dressed figure in a classroom. Memphis saw that the man had no face and was unusually slender. He rushed into the room but found no trace. However the room had a class in session. Rook yelled about that room not being the restroom, and they left with the teacher confused.

Soon after, Memphis texted Raz and exchanged notes from each group. Rook suspected it was a chimera created from the spread of an urban legend. Upon further smart-phone based research, it was decided that the chimera was based on the Slenderman legend.

Rook texted Bella to check if using the Slenderman was one of her plans. Bella called him back excitedly to question what he meant. After an explanation, Bella wanted to meet with the group to help solve the situation. Everyone met in the display hall in front of the library.

With the school’s Kithain gathered, discussion on how to deal with the chimera began. Raz asked what summoned a Senderman. Bella responded that talk of it does. She went on that it was an internet created urban legend that started from an online contest to create a modern horror myth. Brytta was asked if she could tell a story of the Slenderman while the group protected her. She said she would. Then the shadow monster spoke to her and offered to protect her if she named him. She responded with Sacan Ealdor. It then accepted her, but remained creepy. Rook texted Chelle to make sure nothing odd happened to her. And Memphis made the quick trip home to grab his special hungry-hungry-hippo-like gloves.

The group chose an empty room for the summoning. Windows were covered and the door was locked after Memphis came back. Brytta set herself up in the middle of the room, while melee combat capable of the Kithain present spaced themselves throughout the room to keep Brytta safe. Once set up, Brytta began her tale of the Slenderman. As she went through his origin and what he was, her cantrips lit up the room to emphasize her telling.

Then the Slenderman struck. Both Des and Rook noticed, but were too slow as the Slenderman did a pseudo-impersonation of High King David by attacking Mindy. The dark chimera latched on and began sucking out her Glamour. Des attacked it first, then Rook changed from a parry to an attack, barely damaging it. Krahe tried to take over Rook in his lapse of resistance, but Rook kept him at bay. Raz tried to pull it off of her without luck. Memphis attacked it with his ‘special’ gauntlets. Then Rook attacked a second time, killing it with a thorough smite.

Afterward the group made sure Mindy was okay. Luckily she was more shaken up than devoured. Des asked if everyday at Hughes High was like this, and Rook responded dryly that sometimes there was trouble. However, the rest of the first day was rather uneventful.

King Perennial Yuri Vorsella Franbura took down the dregs of the shot. It had been a long hard time. This time of year was always hard.

King Perennial Yuri Vorsella Franbura reigned over the summer festivities of his kingdom. The fairy maids danced around the room to celebrate another year while the younger fairy lordlings started on, slack jawed. The celebration would go on for another three days, but young men seemed to view this as the highlight. He could hardly blame them. He remembered being young. The clear eyes of youth as they looked to take everything they could of life and suck the marrow from the bones before they were done. But that would change as it had for their fathers, and their grandfathers.

Franbura wore a different name now. It hardly mattered. He had done everything he had to. The choice hadn’t been easy. The world had been ending. The little dream they had all lived had been collapsing. The dream had been a dream in a different age, and when things had started to shatter, what could he do? They screamed and cried for the king to do something, but he was a master of law and lore, not equipped to handle the fundamental changes sweeping all of creation. So he had found someone and done al he could, sacrificing everything.

The king presided over the great feast after the ceremonies were complete. His wife sat at his side smiling at him. The summer had been honored and the ceremonies that held the things together had been performed. The season would pass uneventfully.

Memory flooded over him as he brooded. The whole world had been in flux then. The stable pillars that the world was built on were crumbling. The Great Ones were in a panic and the one that were doing anything were fleeing. What was one small kingdom to the Great Ones? But he could not do nothing, so he sought out a Great One that seemed to still have his mind.

The king looked down on the young men that petitioned him after the feast. They wished to travel beyond the edges of the kingdom, to see what was in the wider world. They had heard the stories of the wonders and horrors that lived away beyond the edge of the world, but they had to see. The king could hardly deny them. He would have to show them the wider world.

Funbura kept thinking back to that decision. Had it been right? He had been (was?) the king. It was his decision to make. And everything he had been promised had been delivered. The worst part of all this was time to second guess and reexamine every decision of his life as time wore on. One day it would all be worth it. One day.

The king took the young men. He took them past the wall that surrounded their kingdom. He spoke the Words to allow them past the wards that surrounded the kingdom and kept the Kingdom of the Wild Roses separate from the larger world. And he showed them what lay beyond… Nothing.

Funbura hated this part. He had been drinking in preparation. The memories, in their own way were too sharp. This came around at least once a generation. He owed it to them. To know and understand and maybe help if the day came. He turned his sight inward again started to explain to his the young men that stood looking at Nothing.

“Let me tell you a story of the days before I was the King Perennial, when the world was failing and the decisions I made.”

“The world was shifting, and the ground on which this kingdom was built was crumbling as a sea ate the pillars of that underpinned it.”

“The kingdom would not last long, my wise men assured me. Soon all that was would dissolve as the world slowly Shattered around us. I took my bravest knights and wisest counselors, and went to find the Great Ones of legend to lend us their aid”

“We faced my challenges in the crumbling world, my knights fought horrors that the Shattering had unleashed from their prisons and many were lost. My wise counselors were faced with temptation and despair and many were lost.“

“When we found what we sought, we found the Wise Ones fleeing the Sundering. I plead wit many of them as they fled, but there spirit was lost, their courage fled and my remaining men were lost as surely as any blow. I fell into despair for this kingdom, until I saw One that worked on in the face of the Great Change. He worked on in the face of the danger, preparing a great work.“

“I approached and spoke to him of our plight. At first, he did not seem to hear, but I pushed on until he finally turned and spoke,”

“’Small one,’ he said to me ’ your tale makes me worry for your people, but I have a need my self. I think I may know a way to save some of your people, but I require a service of you in return, it will not be an easy task.’”

“‘I will do anything you require if you save my people,’ I told him sincerely.”

“‘Come then, good king,’ he said, ‘show me your kingdom.’“

“We traveled long and came back to the kingdom, but alas, all seemed lost. Too late had help arrived to save everything. The pillars had fallen at last and the kingdom fallen into the sea.”

He paused.

“Yes, I see the bewilderment in you eyes, for all was not as lost as I had hoped, but all was not ended.”

“As I despaired, the Great One carefully examined the area and said slowly ‘All is not lost little king, your kingdom can be saved, but the cost will not be easy. I can save this place, for the kingdom is made up of many parts, all of which yet linger it seems, but have lost their order. I may give them the order they seek, but it will require the blood and body of their king for the way it was, and an oath for what it will be. Stay your hand, little one, before you spill your blood. As I stated, I have a cost. The world is changing. I know of a way to survive in the world to be, but I must lose myself. Not once but many times. I will come in the world as a newborn babe. The oath I demand as price is one of protection and loyalty. You must keep me safe until the dangers have passed. If you agree I will bind it into the blood and oaths to your kingdom and all will be put right, in due time.’“

“I pledge my word, my lord” How those words could change everything. The explanation had gone well. They understood enough. They could not understand all. Franbura turned back to his drink and away from his other sight. Raz swore as pinched his finger in the car engine.

“Damn, now I’m bleeding. Flutterfeet, bring me a clean rag.”

Franbura responded to his new name. His other name was tied up in the oath some how and didn’t seem to stick to him as well as it used to. Perhaps he was stretched too thin. Nothing to it now.

“Stop being a dipshit and hurting yourself and maybe I wouldn’t need to baby your ass all day,” Funbura responded casually, not moving from his place on the workbench.

“Hah, I baby your ass as much as you baby mine. Now bring me a damn clean rag before I bleed out.”

Funbura got the rag and handed it to the Nocker. The old argument was a time-honored tradition. The form reminding him of the odd truth of how they belonged to each other. Raz belonged to him until he came into his own, then he belonged to Raz, till the cycle turned again. Circle continuing until the oaths were fulfilled. He could feel the itch on his back where the oaths had been carved. His dual vision of within the kingdom and without was still hard sometimes. The stress of being two places at once was almost unbearable sometimes, but he had learned to bear, though sometimes he needed something to take off the edge and help him forgot one identity.

“Thanks Flutterfeet. What could I ever do to repay you?“ Raz asked flippantly.

Raz turned back to his work. After a moment of consideration, Flutterfeet said under his breath ”For now you have done enough, my liege, but someday, the time will come and I will truly owe you more than I can repay.”